Automatic Tree Farm Discussion

[gftweek]

So you are counting clock pulses instead of a delay mechanism, but since each pulse is what dispenses a sand block, you can control the timing exactly by counting the exact number of sand blocks you need to push all the tree logs up. Which means it is easy to customise for different height trees (I think 4 logs max for a non-branching oak tree, 5 for birch and 7 for pine).

Very nice solution!

[Stormweaver]

So you are counting clock pulses instead of a delay mechanism, but since each pulse is what dispenses a sand block, you can control the timing exactly by counting the exact number of sand blocks you need to push all the tree logs up. Which means it is easy to customise for different height trees (I think 4 logs max for a non-branching oak tree, 5 for birch and 7 for pine).

Very nice solution!

Yup. It's worth keeping in mind that if you don't plan on needing more than 9 sand blocks being pushed, it has a footprint of 1x2. 1xfreaking 2. Now think how much room it takes to do a piston-pushed ring, or turntables to achieve the same thing.

I think I just miniaturized minecraft.

[gftweek]

Yup. It's worth keeping in mind that if you don't plan on needing more than 9 sand blocks being pushed, it has a footprint of 1x2. 1xfreaking 2. Now think how much room it takes to do a piston-pushed ring, or turntables to achieve the same thing.

I think I just miniaturized minecraft.

1x2! Are you talking about just the counter? For that I think 2x2 would be the minimum, as you have the block dispenser, repeater and space for the block? But yes, definitely a tiny counter! Awesome circuit.

Now I just can't figure out your pushing stage E. I think what looks like a log in front of the BD is a piston embedded in the ground to push the sand up, but why is there a piston(?) above it to the right?

[HavokSCOUT]

I may have missed something, so I have two questions to ask, mainly to finite8

• Does your mill make all there is to make with wood blocks and a saw?(i.e. planks, panels, moulding, courners, and gears)
• Did you aim for efficiency, or did you try to make the build as "difficult"as possible?

[Stormweaver]

Yup. It's worth keeping in mind that if you don't plan on needing more than 9 sand blocks being pushed, it has a footprint of 1x2. 1xfreaking 2. Now think how much room it takes to do a piston-pushed ring, or turntables to achieve the same thing.

I think I just miniaturized minecraft.

1x2! Are you talking about just the counter? For that I think 2x2 would be the minimum, as you have the block dispenser, repeater and space for the block? But yes, definitely a tiny counter! Awesome circuit.

Now I just can't figure out your pushing stage E. I think what looks like a log in front of the BD is a piston embedded in the ground to push the sand up, but why is there a piston(?) above it to the right?

ok, 1x2x2 if you count the y-axis. still pretty damned small.

[finite8]

I may have missed something, so I have two questions to ask, mainly to finite8

• Does your mill make all there is to make with wood blocks and a saw?(i.e. planks, panels, moulding, courners, and gears)
• Did you aim for efficiency, or did you try to make the build as "difficult"as possible?

Question 1: Does your mill make all there is to make with wood blocks and a saw?(i.e. planks, panels, moulding, courners, and gears)

Answer: Yes it does. It uses a process of reprocessing the products and putting them back into a Mill process to continue to break the items down into their reduced forms. I did this as a second part of the mill process so my mill has a total of 2 saws: 1 for breaking the Trunks to planks, and another for the reprocessing part. I am currently doing a few tweaks to my design so i can show the inner workings of all of its components but if you can't wait... i uploaded the MCedit schematic of my factory here http://dl.dropbox.com/u/36477635/Minecr ... .schematic

Question 2: Did you aim for efficiency, or did you try to make the build as "difficult"as possible?

Answer: I tried to get it to work with reliability and self sufficiency in mind. Every section has been designed so that no player interaction is required to get it to work and keep it working. That is why i use the push-up design and makes sure it collects every piece of gravel that it used to push the whole system up. The complexity is just a result of those considerations. The supply of saplings is increasing with every cycle without me reloading it. Sometimes a tree will drop 6 saplings and half of them make it back into the dispenser!

If you are referring to the redstone wiring, it is a result of an organic design. I had major issues surrounding the timing of it all and designed most of it from an unresearched approach. I often encountered hiccups where i though that the redstone wire would power the BD but didn't... or that the Block Dispenser would power the wire at the position but again... didn't. Several trials and errors along with messy rewiring to get the right signal to the right spot. The method of using a Piston to create a pulse was my own idea and clearly not as effective as the Monostable Circuit design. It had also been pieced back together several times due to me accidentally breaking a block and flooding out my circuit room below!

The main thing you should take away from the design is the concept of using gravel/sand to push up the trunk, refilling the collector, using a BD to detect that it's grown, the mill process, etc. The wiring was a haphazard job as it is and most stuff was put there because it was the most accessible place at the time (that is why there is a total of 4 turn tables in the entire system). I never expected anyone to follow my wiring approach or my axle configuration. One particular section would have been WAY easier of gearboxes could connect directly to eachother.

[finite8]

Yup. It's worth keeping in mind that if you don't plan on needing more than 9 sand blocks being pushed, it has a footprint of 1x2. 1xfreaking 2. Now think how much room it takes to do a piston-pushed ring, or turntables to achieve the same thing.

I think I just miniaturized minecraft.

1x2! Are you talking about just the counter? For that I think 2x2 would be the minimum, as you have the block dispenser, repeater and space for the block? But yes, definitely a tiny counter! Awesome circuit.

Now I just can't figure out your pushing stage E. I think what looks like a log in front of the BD is a piston embedded in the ground to push the sand up, but why is there a piston(?) above it to the right?

ok, 1x2x2 if you count the y-axis. still pretty damned small.

Does that include the space surrounding the counter? I don't really consider something 2x2 if you are unable to place something next to it because the redstone wires get mixed up and connect to eachother, or a torch on the edge would power something in an adjacent section.

Still... i really need to redesign my circuit room. You guys / girls / people / politically-correct-person-reference have shown me some pretty nifty ways to shrink things without using some other Mod like that redpower one. Maybe once i finish my all-in-one Mob lifter and Farm i will rebuild parts of it.

[Stormweaver]

Does that include the space surrounding the counter? I don't really consider something 2x2 if you are unable to place something next to it because the redstone wires get mixed up and connect to eachother, or a torch on the edge would power something in an adjacent section.

Still... i really need to redesign my circuit room. You guys / girls / people / politically-correct-person-reference have shown me some pretty nifty ways to shrink things without using some other Mod like that redpower one. Maybe once i finish my all-in-one Mob lifter and Farm i will rebuild parts of it.

well the area around the repeaters is insulated, but given it's size it's quite easy to work it in such a way that you don't end with mixed signals; BDs seem to power the blocks around them when they are powered themselves though, so it takes a bit of care.

And I have to say if it wasn't for people like you making such awesome things, I'd still be content with my little cobble generator. I never even thought of making something like this before this thread :p

[finite8]

Does that include the space surrounding the counter? I don't really consider something 2x2 if you are unable to place something next to it because the redstone wires get mixed up and connect to eachother, or a torch on the edge would power something in an adjacent section.

Still... i really need to redesign my circuit room. You guys / girls / people / politically-correct-person-reference have shown me some pretty nifty ways to shrink things without using some other Mod like that redpower one. Maybe once i finish my all-in-one Mob lifter and Farm i will rebuild parts of it.

well the area around the repeaters is insulated, but given it's size it's quite easy to work it in such a way that you don't end with mixed signals; BDs seem to power the blocks around them when they are powered themselves though, so it takes a bit of care.

And I have to say if it wasn't for people like you making such awesome things, I'd still be content with my little cobble generator. I never even thought of making something like this before this thread :p

he he. Cheers! That's what i love about Minecraft. There is no real goal to the game yet we can get such awesome satisfaction from spending hours just building some stupid contraption.

[HavokSCOUT]

Are there any filters that will filter out saplings and not wood planks?
EDIT: never mind. I checked the wiki :D I did figure out how to keep wood from going in the sapling planter and saplings from going into the processing plant.

[FaceFoiled]

Although this in itself has not much to do with the cutting of trees, it could be connected after the cutting part to saw the blocks up. I am really quite proud of this setup!! :)

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[Williamson]

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Here are some pictures of my tree farm. The only issue at the moment is that leaves sometimes block the sand from falling. I'm looking into way to catch the sand which goes too far.
If the pictures don't explain it as well as I hope, I can type up a quick explanation if it helps.
I'm especially pleased with how my up cycle works. Other might already be doing it this way, but I worked it out myself.

[BigShinyToys]

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http://www.filefactory.com/file/cc8e840 ... evator.zip

This is a Lift with out BTW only pistions i dont know if this will help with youre design . But the Pistion to hold up the block might be use full Small map downloade . Only goes up ATM manylt reset it by loading the other side with Sand.

[HavokSCOUT]

I believe that I have made a tree farm w/out the push down or up method, but it is quite messy since I just picked a natural, flat stretch of land to do it on. (twss) Not to mention it completely rapes my fps on this dinky buisness computer. T_T

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When the tree grows, the DB sends a signal to the piston to retract and to the saws to start cutting.
The wood blocks and saplings fall in to the collection area, where they are sorted by a hopper with a ladder filter for the saplings and another hopper to put the wood in the BD, but two pistons control the water flow so that 75% of the time, the wood goes to storage, and the rest of the time, the wood goes to be reprocessed.

Here, the saw cuts the wood and either puts it in storage or back into the loop to have a chance to be processed further. After being reprocessed, the wood is brought up using a platform and pulleys and is put into the same water flow as before so that it has a chance to be reprocessed further.
The saplings go through a similar process to be put back into the replanting BD at the beginning. All wood ends up in a storage chest accessed from the surface.
P.S.: sorry about my handwriting. :3

[Stormweaver]

After getting frustrated trying to make my first tree farm smaller (I can't wire vertically. Irritating thing to find out halfway through a project) I took a break, had a journey through the nether, found a nice valley which finally had wolves in it and decided it was time to start afresh. Then I thought 'hang on' and went back to the tree generator for a moment. It tuns out I had a good idea.

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Block dispencer contents from the clock, going anticlockwise:
- Wood block (clock)
- 3x Boats, wood block
- 2x Boats, wood block
- 1x Boat, wood block
- Redstone, glass (T-flip flop)

All the functionality of the original controller design with none of the messy vertical wiring I had to do for the feedback. The only drawback is the clock pulse needs to be at least 0.6 seconds so I can't do the tests at high speed with the turntable in place (hence no turntable in picture - there will be one later). If anyone has ideas on making it smaller/making it work with a 0.5 sec clock, let me know? Till then, I've just realised I wasted all my glue on a waterwheel and now don't have any for sticky pistons, and my wolf despawned when i nipped into the nether. So I'll *try* to have the thing completed (and screenshot friendly) by this evening, but I need to find a wolf first :|

[Atomic]

is there any reason that this setup wouldn't work? I've got the wiring all correct, and only one tree has grown (without bonemeal) its probably been close to 15 days in minecraft time. Is there something inhibiting tree growth or is it just painfully slow?

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[Urian]

is there any reason that this setup wouldn't work? I've got the wiring all correct, and only one tree has grown (without bonemeal) its probably been close to 15 days in minecraft time. Is there something inhibiting tree growth or is it just painfully slow?

It looks like you've got too little free space. A normal sapling requires six blocks of empty air above the sapling. Birch and Spruce saplings won't grow at all there since they need free space all around them and not just above.

[gftweek]

is there any reason that this setup wouldn't work? I've got the wiring all correct, and only one tree has grown (without bonemeal) its probably been close to 15 days in minecraft time. Is there something inhibiting tree growth or is it just painfully slow?

Any space taken up in the potential grow area of a tree will reduce it's chances to grow as only certain tree sizes/shapes will fit in the available space. This is the reason for the piston powered tree harvester designs in this thread as you can remove much of the surrounding blocks that prevent tree growth. However these only work with birch and pine trees as neither of these have branches, just straight trunks of varying height.

I have a design that does not inhibit tree growth at all as there are no blocks above the sapling, but it does prevent you from recovering many of the saplings that drop from leaves, and it does not include a method for refilling the sapling BD (as this would be above the sapling and prevent growth attempts). I must try pine saplings to see if they are less restrictive than birch.

[Stormweaver]

if you modified it so that the saws (and axels powering them) are moved into place with pistons, and shave a corresponding chunk of wall away, it'd probably work/work more often. It's a bit complex. but still simpler than the sandlift versions - bit more space friendly too.

[finite8]

With growing the new types of trees (pine, birch and.... can't remember the other one), they can't have anything in their grow path. This includes the area where their leaves will grow. The original trees are a bit nicer in that as long as their height and light requirement is met, in most cases they will grow, but they have branches so suck for automation purposes.

Also, with growing trees Minecraft follows this process:

1) Sapling is planted.
2) Sapling waits until it gets told to try and grow (With most sapling types, this will occur in about 1 minecraft day).
3) Sapling randomly picks a tree formation (each tree has a set combination of growth types).
4) If there is enough space to fit the growth formation, then the tree is made.
5) if there is not enough space, return to step 2.

This means that you can force a tree to grow big by effectively modifying the space around it. All the attempts to grow the small formations would fail. It would continue through this cycle until it eventually picks the tree formation that can fit.

Using Bonemeal skips the tree growing process straight to 3. This is also why it doesn't always work because if the randomly picked formation can't fit, the tree won't grow and nothing happens.

[gftweek]

The other tree type is spruce I believe, the tall snow biome ones with no leaves lower down, but these can't be grown from sapling, their saplings produce pine trees.

This is quite a pain actually, since they have so few leaves, they would be easier to automate by using saws on the lower sections and pistons to push the upper sections (where the leaves are) down to the saws.

[Atomic]

yeah I've modified mine just a little bit (gave it more height) and it's producing more (around 1 stack of planks per hour with 3 trees). This still is a bit slower than I'd like, so i may dabble in making a piston one.

[Williamson]

However these only work with birch and pine trees as neither of these have branches, just straight trunks of varying height.

You can actually use regular trees by placing a block 8 blocks (I think) above the sapling. This stops that type of tree from growing branches. There may have been a disadvantage to doing this, but I can't remember what it is, and haven't ad any problems in my designs.

[Sky_Som]

However these only work with birch and pine trees as neither of these have branches, just straight trunks of varying height.

You can actually use regular trees by placing a block 8 blocks (I think) above the sapling. This stops that type of tree from growing branches. There may have been a disadvantage to doing this, but I can't remember what it is, and haven't ad any problems in my designs.

The only downside I have heard is that it may take a little longer because it randomly decides size then checks to see if there is room for it to grow.

[Fenrus]

I just made one, is not fully done yet. Sorry its kinda dark...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWxJ1YdcCPQ